


Christmas on Callisto

by splkespiegel



Category: Cowboy Bebop
Genre: M/M, but jet loves them, spike isn't big on holidays
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-30
Updated: 2015-10-30
Packaged: 2018-04-28 22:55:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5108627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/splkespiegel/pseuds/splkespiegel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Spike didn't even know that it was December until last week, much less that it was Christmas Eve that day, and Jet's dragging him off to Callisto.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Christmas on Callisto

“We could see snow anywhere. We could stop on Europa. Or Mars.” Spike grumbled, splayed out on the couch with a cigarette between his fingers. “Why do you want to go to Callisto?”

“My ship, my rules.” Jet replied, throwing a few winter coats from the closet in the next room in Spike’s general direction. “We’re gonna be landing soon, put those on.”

“If it’s not too late to change your mind, you _do_ know that the climate control facility on Mars always makes it snow on Christmas, right? It would be easier to stop there.” Spike said. “Not to mention less likely to give us frostbite.”

“Too late, we’ll be touching down in two minutes. I’m not turning around now.”

Spike didn’t stop pestering Jet about his decision, but did have enough of a sense of self-preservation to bundle up before he would be forced to get off the Bebop and go outside. He quickly ran out of things to complain about and started to mumble something that sounded like “festive my ass, all I hear is ‘sub-arctic’”.

“Quit whining, we’re only going to be here for an hour or two.” Jet finally said, grabbing Spike by the collar of one of his four jackets and dragging him through the door of the cargo hold and onto the deck. “Look, we’re not even going to leave the ship. Not really.”

“We’re still going to be outside.” Spike shot back, pulling his scarf up to cover the bottom half of his face. “Sitting still. And not moving. Which makes it even more likely that we’ll get frostbite.”

“And that’s why I told you to dress for sub-arctic temperatures, you lunkhead. But you decided to complain instead of prepare, and I had to do it for you.”

“You still haven’t told me why you wanted to come here.” Spike said after a moment, his tone serious. “If you wanted to celebrate Christmas, Mars would’ve been the place to go.”

“I already told you why.” Jet replied, pulling two chairs up onto the deck and motioning for Spike to sit down.

“‘My ship, my rules’ isn’t a reason, Jet.”

Jet sighed heavily and fixed his eyes on the horizon, flurries of snow dancing through his vision. “I used to come out here as a kid. With Ma and Dad.” He said after a minute, snapping himself out of the blankness that had overtaken him.

Spike opened his mouth to make some smart remark, but decided against it and let Jet talk.

“I was an only child, so it was just the three of us. It doesn’t snow on Ganymede. Not anymore, at least, but people say that before humans colonized it the whole satellite was a frozen wasteland.”

“Yeah, most of the satellites were like that last century.” Spike added.

Jet nodded before continuing. “And Europa is a hassle to try to travel to, so that was always out of the question for us. Next best was Callisto, so we flew over every Christmas to see snow.”

Jet blanked out again for a moment, lost in the sight of snowflakes floating down to his feet and sticking to his boots.

“I never did anything like that as a kid.” Spike said, his words muffled through the scarf. “My family just stayed home for Christmas. Sometimes we went to Tharsis, though, to see aunts and uncles.” Spike adjusted his scarf again so that Jet could hear him better. “I never really liked holidays, honestly. They’re just days.”

Jet chuckled. “I had gathered that much. My parents loved holidays, they always did a little something. I actually asked them why they loved coming to Callisto just for snow, once.”

“And why was that?” Spike asked.

“They were born on Earth. Twenty years or so before the astral gate accident.” Jet said. “It used to snow on Earth then, you know. Actual snow, and actual rain, too.” Jet paused, rubbing his gloved hands together. “They said they missed it. And this was the best they could get.”

“Why would they miss a place like Earth?” Spike said, his face scrunching up. “The whole planet is basically a desert. It’s awful.”

“It wasn’t always like that. Ma told the best stories about Earth before the accident.” Jet said, smiling at the memories of his mother weaving tales of beaches and swimming in the ocean, building snowmen right outside her front door as a child, and the apple orchard an hour north from her old apartment that she would visit with his father during the fall.

Spike only hummed at that, for lack of anything else to say. He supposed that Earth must have been a pretty decent place all those years ago, if it took a large-scale accident like the astral gate exploding to get people to colonize the rest of the star system. He wouldn’t know, after all – he was born on Mars, and even his parents had been raised in one of the early asteroid colonies.

“It’s kinda funny,” Jet said after a minute or two, his smile becoming just a little sad. “I never even lived on the Earth my parents told me about, and sometimes I find myself missing it.”

Spike scooted his chair closer to Jet’s and took hold of his hand, squeezing it in what he hoped Jet saw as a show of support. “If we high-tail it to Mars in a few minutes, we can still make it in time for the Christmas parade.” He said. “We don’t have to go right now, though.”

“That actually sounds pretty nice.” Jet said, shifting his fingers so that they fell into the spaces between Spike’s. “Maybe it won’t be as damn cold there, too.”


End file.
